6 Responses to “2011 World Cup: Round #3”

Very interesting interview with Benjamin Banlock of Cameroon who has been traveling to Khanty-Mansiysk to train and play chess. He quit his job and started a life as a full-time chess player despite the fact that he only started playing a few years back.

Don’t let this smile fool you. Judit Polgar is serious about this mission.

Judit Polgar was not the favorite in this match, but her beating Sergey Karjakin is not an earth-shaking upset. She has been eating strong GMs for dinner since she was 12 or 13 years old. She has made a recent resurgence back over 2700 and seems to be playing into form.

Polgar positionally dismantled Karjakin in a Berlin Defense and stated in an interview that he may have missed 24.Nc3-a5 maneuver winning a pawn. However, Karjakin began to make more mistakes that kept accumulating until white’s running passed a-pawn proved decisive. The final move 49.f4! was academic exercise that Karjakin did not care to see.

The field has been whittled down to 32 players.

The question with Vassily Ivanchuk has always been whether he can maintain his nerves during a long tournament. Playing white against Emil Sutovsky, Ivanchuk missed an opportunity after 31… a3? when 32.Ne4 would have put him firmly on top. Moves later, Ivanchuk made a blunder of his own with 35. Nxa3? after the zwischenzug 35…Bc5+! proved decisive. After 36.Kc3 Bxa3+ 37.Bc4? b5! 38.Kb3 bxc4+ 39.Kxa3 c3 40.fxe4 Rb8 Ivanchuk had seen enough.

Russia went into this round with ten players, but with Karjakin’s loss along with losses by Ian Nepomniachtchi (Gata Kamsky), Igor Lysyj (Lenier Dominguez), Russia stands to at least half their competitors…maybe more. Both Kamsky and Dominguez ground down their Russian opponents with the efficiency of accountants. Kamsky clearly put on a clinic in a text rook and pawn ending. Meanwhile Dominguez took a pawn sacrifice, but Lysyj got no compensation. The Cuban then snatched another pawn and Lysyj soon resigned. Russia was not totally whitewashed as Dmitri Jakovenko beat Baadur Jobova.

Judit continues… steamrolling past the top seed Sergey Karjakin, as predicted! She now waits for her next opponent, who will most likely be Lenier Perez Dominguez of Cuba, who is having a great tournament at this World Cup.

What an exciting round of play today! The headline story being the elimination of top-seed Sergey Karjakin of Russia by Hungary’s Judit Polgar. The result may be somewhat of a surprise and certainly Polgar showed pleasure during the press conference, but she will continue to look ahead. She will face the Dominguez-Lysyj winner.

Vassily Ivanhuk won win the Pirc Defense over a hyper-aggressive Austrian Attack by Emil Sutovsky. The Israeli is not the type to go for a quiet draw, but this would come back to bite him as he got a lost position after overextending. This will clearly go down as one of the most exciting games of the round and show the precise calculation by the Ukrainian.

While he could have pocketed the rook after 23…Qxa1, it would have taken nerves of steel to do so. He opted for the safe, yet interesting resource, 23…Nc6 and after 24. Qf7+ Kd8 25. Qxf8+ Kc7 26. Rxh7+ Kb6 27. Qxa8 (diagram #1)

David Navara had an interesting roller coaster ride leading to a mild controversy which may take sportsmanship to a new level. After outplaying Alexander Moiseenko, the game boiled down to the textbook queen versus rook ending. After 73…Kxe3, it took Navara nearly 40 moves to find the right technique to win.

With 12 moves before Moiseenko could claim a draw, Navara crept into dangerous territory when the engines were giving mate in 12. One more mistake and it would have been an embarrassing situation. However, Moiseenko made an error 112.Rc1? and the evaluation went quickly down to mate in seven. Then the story gets stranger.

Before Navara completed the winning move, he offered a DRAW!! What happened?? It turns out that Navara apparently accidentally touched a piece which was excused by Moiseenko. There are many GMs that would not have had such sportsmanship as Navara.

Many state that Navara was covered by FIDE rules, but it’s beside the point and the lesson here is far bigger than the game itself. We can learn from this. Sergey Shipov reports on this story… http://www.whychess.org/en/node/1689.

After 61.f4! the innocent bishop at c2 become the executioner after black captures on f4. After 61…Qxf4 62.Bd1+ Kh6 63.Qh8+ Kg5 64.h4+! Qxh4 65.Qd8+ snares the queen.

Perhaps one heart-breaking result was Abhijeet Gupta’s lost to Bu Xiangzhi after having a slight advantage for most of the match. While a draw was more probable, a ripple was sent through the hall.

Gupta made a huge blunder and was forced to resign!! After 60.Qh8-d8+, Gupta played 60…Kh5?? (60…Kh6 would draw) and was in for a rude shock after 61.f4! This would end the tournament for Gupta and was the last Indian standing. Bu will continue on and now carry the Asian banner. Meanwhile Russia starting with 26 players lose at least four competitors after tomorrow. With top seed Karjakin gone, Ivanchuk may be in a good position if he gets past Sutovsky.

Many were scratching their heads after Alexander Morozevich offered Alexander Grischuk a 12-move draw allowing him to advance to the next round. Looking at the body language in the photo, the result raises more questions. Doesn’t appear that a tough fight is ahead.

Russia started this tournament with 26 competitors from 128 and are are now left with four out of the 16 finalists. However, the Ukraine and Azerbaijan have perhaps done a better job of overall preparation. The Ukraine started with eight and have three left including front-runner Vassily Ivanchuk. Azerbaijan started with five and have two remaining. Despite the upsets having occurred, the field is still very strong with a 2700-level.

Yaroslav Zherebukh is one of the world’s top juniors and works with GM Baadur Jobava, who also competed in the World Cup. Photo from http://chess.ugrasport.com/.

Games today provide a preview of what may come. There were some hard fought tiebreakers today and stamina seems to have become an issue as several players simply did not make a strong effort. Ivanchuk simply steamrolled Emil Sutovsky leaving no doubt that he plans to go deep in the tournament. Ukrainian sensation Yaroslav Zherebukh toppled Shahkriyar Mamedyarov in an upset victory. Baadur Jobava has been working with Zherebukh as a coach and was seen at the press conference fielding questions.

Gata Kamsky dominated affairs in the first tiebreak against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Kamsky sacrificed an exchange and got good play with his two bishops… the white king was being battered in the middle of the board. White had to give the exchange back, but was down two pawns the fight was hopeless. The second game was more of the same, a positional dissection. Nepo never had a chance.

Kamsky goes onto the fourth round to play Peter Svidler. Svidler beat Fabiano Caruana 2-0 in tiebreaks but mentioned in the interview that the Italian had good chances in both games. He said that Caruana would not be happy once he looked over his games. In the first tiebreak, Caruana was up a clear pawn and heading to victory before going astray. The second tiebreak he outright tossed a free piece.

The “etiquette match” was won by David Navara in what has set a precedence for sportsmanship. Natalia Komarova, the Governor of Okrug-Ugra region, was so impressed that she is honoring both players tomorrow. Navara and opponent Alexander Moiseenko split two rapid games, but the Czech won both 10-minute games to advance. In the post-match interview both players explained their side of the story about the yesterday’s event. Both were gracious and Moiseenko even wish that Navara would win the tournament.